The US operation in Iraq could come to an embarrassing end. Iran's power will only grow - CNN

Officials in Iraq's parliament, where powerful blocs have unbreakable ties to Tehran, started a process to end the presence of foreign troops in the country, in a clear riposte to the US after it killed top Iranian commander Qasm Soleimani in a drone strike in Baghdad two weeks ago.

In the wake of the strike, joint US-Iraqi operations against ISIS were put on hold, and Iraq's caretaker prime minister said a US troop withdrawal was the only way to "protect all those on Iraqi soil," though this week he said that decision would be up to the next government.

But a US withdrawal could bring even more trouble, experts say. ISIS continues its attacks in the country, and without US and other foreign troops, the group would have more room to resurge. At the same time, Iran will be able to expand its already far-reaching powers in Baghdad.

Tehran and Washington have competed for influence in Iraq since the US 2003 invasion, and in that battle, Iran is already winning. Its consistent and coherent strategy, which the US lacks, has allowed Tehran to gradually weave itself into the fabric of everyday life in Iraq.

It has capitalized on years of war and occupation to form militia groups that have become official factions of the Iraqi military, while economically, it provides an enormous amount of exports that Iraqis have come to rely on. It has made surrogates out of senior Iraqi government officials and members of parliament.

Because of those links, the Iraqi parliament's decision to side with Iran after the attack on Soleimani is not surprising. The strike appears to have backfired, to the benefit of Iran's long-term goal: getting the US out of the region.

"Iran is the most influential state in Iraq now," said Fawaz Gerges, a professor of international relations at the London School of Economics and Political Science. "That power is only going to grow if the US leaves."

He said that the most important challenge for Iraq now was not ISIS, but rebuilding a working nation -- fighting corruption, changing the sectarian-based government to one based on citizenship and professionalizing the army, for example. Iran isn't interested in those goals, Gerges said, and a US withdrawal would embolden it further its reach across the Middle East.

"If the US leaves, people across the region will think that despite his flowery rhetorical devices, Trump does not really have a strategy for the Middle East and at the end of the day will fold and go home," Gerges said.

Being forced out would be a humiliating end to the US' long mission in Iraq, which has sucked up hundreds of billions of US taxpayers' money and left thousands of US soldiers dead.

US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has denied the US will leave, but pointed to a possible reduction of numbers. Gerges sees that proposal as a face-saving exercise for the US that could allow the American troops to stay in small numbers for the fight against ISIS but essentially begin the process of withdrawal.

How Iran got a hold on Iraq

Much of Iran's power in Iraq comes through militia groups that have roots in the 1980s Iraq-Iran war. Recruiting fighters from Iraq wasn't that difficult. Iraq was a Shia-majority nation led for more than two decades by brutal dictator Saddam Hussein, born a Sunni.

Iran, which has long pitched itself as the world's leader of Shia Muslims, took in Shia prisoners of war and refugees, and turned them into soldiers who would go back to Iraq to act in Tehran's interests, according to the Center for Strategic and International Studies. Some became part of what is now known as the Badr Organization, the report said, both a militia group and an anti-US political party in Iraq today.

"Because of the institutional organizational capacity of those paramilitary groups, when Saddam fell and the repression that contained them ended, they flourished. They had the capacity to expand and to operate more overtly," said Jack Watling, a specialist in land warfare at the London-based Royal United Services Institute.

The fight against ISIS provided another recruitment opportunity for Iran, particular after the terrorist group took Mosul and the Iraqi military collapsed. It was at this time the Popular Mobilization Units (PMUs), a coalition of mostly Shia militias, formed and became a powerful force in the country, in the absence of a real army. They have since been officially folded into Iraq's military.

According to Watling, there are now around 113,000 salaried personnel in the powerful Tehran-backed Iraqi militia group. Of those, some 60,000 are actively deployable as fighters, and of those, 36,000 are directed by Iran.

In the 2018 Iraqi elections, the political wing of the PMUs, Fatah, won the second-highest number of seats in parliament, giving another powerful voice to Iranian interests in the Iraqi government.

Economically, Iran has ensured Iraq is dependent on it for energy, seeking loopholes and waivers from the US to get around sanctions and sell energy to its neighbor. Iraq is also Iran's second most important destination for its exports, after China, according to the Observatory of Economic Complexity, so Tehran wants to ensure its market across the border is well secured.

Trump sends mixed messages

As Iran made steady headway in the Iraqi government and military, the US' objective in Iraq has changed so many times that it's become muddy and unfocused. Iraqi officials are growing weary of the changes that have come with each new US president, and the mixed signals being sent by the Trump administration.

Pompeo is struggling to send the message that the US is in Iraq to fight ISIS, while strikes on Iranians there and comments from Trump indicate otherwise.

Last year, Trump admitted in an interview with CBS News that he wanted to keep a base in Iraq "because I want to be looking a little bit at Iran because Iran is a real problem." The comment provoked Tehran, and sowed confusion in Iraq.

Watling said the US appears to have shifted its interests in Iraq from countering ISIS to countering Iran.

"If the US said our objective is a strong and stable Iraq, then in many ways their best course of action would be to collaborate closely with the Iranians. But it's not. Their wish to counter the Iranian government in many ways overrides their wish to support the Iraqi state. There are contradictions in US policy in the region," he said.

Watling questioned what Trump's "maximum pressure" campaign against Iran was aiming to achieve. Iran's long-term strategy in Iraq, on the other hand, is paying off.

"We have seen a broadly unified attempt to ensure that Iran underwrites and limits Baghdad's military capability and that they retain Iraq as a market for their exports and as an economic partner," he said.

Winning hearts and minds

Despite achieving the regime change the US was looking for, with the capture and execution of Saddam, the US left Iraq in 2011 with an unsteady government in place. It had no choice but to send troops back to put out fires with the spread of ISIS. Iran also took part in the fight against ISIS, but it continued with its drive to boost influence in Iraq.

But Iran is failing in one key area. It hasn't really won the hearts of the people.

Anti-government protesters galvanized by deep economic grievances that have accumulated over many years have found themselves facing off with Iranian-backed forces.

Demonstrators were rallying against endemic corruption and cronyism, which they blame on "confessionalism," a system of government introduced by the US that divides power based on sectarian affiliation. While Iran didn't create that status quo, it has had a stake in maintaining it.

In video footage of some of the demonstrations, protesters can be heard yelling chants against both Iran and the US. Young Iraqis in particular don't want either the US or Iran in their country, said Joost Hitermann, who leads the International Crisis Group's Middle East and North Africa program.

"Iraqis want to get rid of both. Some might like one more than they other, and they don't want just one of the two alone there, to dominate their country," Hitermann said.

"Shia Iraqis may be loosely aligned with Iran, but they don't subscribe to the Iranian Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. The Iranian way is not all what Shia Iraqis want."

CNN's Tamara Qiblawi contributed to this report.

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2020-01-18 07:59:00Z
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Iran’s supreme leader calls Trump a clown, praises missile attack in rare appearance - Fox News

Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Iran’s supreme leader, conducted Friday prayers in Tehran for the first time since 2012 and used the platform to praise the country's retaliatory strike against the U.S. over the killing of one of its top generals. He also appeared to call President Trump a clown who cannot be trusted.

In the rare appearance, Khamenei dismissed the “American clowns” who he said pretend to support the Iranian nation but want to stick their “poisoned dagger” into its back.

“The villainous U.S. government repeatedly says that they are standing by the Iranian people. They lie,” he said. “If you are standing with the Iranian people, it is only to stab them in the heart with their venomous daggers.”

US-IRAN TENSIONS: A TIMELINE OF INCIDENTS BETWEEN TWO LONGTIME RIVALS

In this photo released by the official website of the office of the Iranian supreme leader, Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei delivers his sermon in the Friday prayers at Imam Khomeini Grand Mosque in Tehran, Iran, Friday, Jan. 17, 2020. Iran's supreme leader said President Donald Trump is a "clown" who only pretends to support the Iranian people but will "push a poisonous dagger" into their backs, as he struck a defiant tone in his first Friday sermon in Tehran in eight years. (Office of the Iranian Supreme Leader via AP)

He also insisted Iran would not bow to U.S. pressure after months of crushing sanctions and called Washington’s decision to kill Gen. Qassem Soleimani a “cowardly” hit.

“The shameless U.S. government was disgraced by calling Martyr Soleimani a terrorist when he was recognized by everyone as the most prominent and powerful commander in the fight against terrorism,” he said. “The U.S. government killed Martyr Soleimani, not in the battlefield but thievishly and cowardly.”

Iran, in response to the Jan. 8 airstrikes that billed Soleimani in Baghdad, launched a barrage of ballistic missiles targeting U.S. troops in Iraq. While there were no casualties, the U.S. military said 11 service members were flown out of Al Assad Air Base in Iraq and treated for concussion symptoms.

“The fact that Iran has the power to give such a slap to a world power shows the hand of God,” Khamenei said.

“More important and greater than a military strike, it was a blow to the dignity and awe of the U.S. as a superpower.”

As Iran’s Revolutionary Guard braced for a possible American counterattack, it mistakenly shot down a Ukrainian passenger jetliner shortly after it took off from Tehran’s international airport. All 176 people on board – mostly Iranians – were killed.

IRAN MUST COMPENSATE PLANE CRASH VICTIMS' FAMILIES FAIRLY, OTHER GOVERNMENTS SAY

Khamenei called the shootdown of the plane a “bitter accident” that saddened Iran as much as it made its enemies happy.

Authorities concealed their role in the tragedy for three days, initially blaming the crash on a technical problem. When it came, their admission of responsibility triggered days of street protests, which security forces dispersed with live ammunition and tear gas.

Khamenei has held the country's top office since 1989 and has the final say on all major decisions. The 80-year-old leader openly wept at the funeral of Soleimani and vowed “harsh retaliation” against the United States.

Thousands of people attended the Friday prayers, occasionally interrupting his speech by chanting “God is greatest!” and “Death to America!”

Khamenei told the crowd Friday that President Trump is not to be trusted and only pretends to support the Iranian people. He said Western countries are too weak to "bring Iranians to their knees." He said Iran was willing to negotiate, but not with the U.S.

Tensions between Iran and the United States have steadily escalated since Trump withdrew from the nuclear accord, which had imposed restrictions on Iran's nuclear program in exchange for the lifting of international sanctions.

The U.S. has since imposed crippling sanctions on Iran, including its vital oil and gas industry, pushing the country into an economic crisis that has ignited several waves of sporadic, leaderless protests. Trump has openly encouraged the protesters — even tweeting in Farsi — hoping that the protests and the sanctions will bring about fundamental change in a longtime adversary.

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Khamenei last delivered a Friday sermon in February 2012, when he called Israel a “cancerous tumor” and vowed to support anyone confronting it. He also warned against any U.S. strikes on Iran over its nuclear program, saying the U.S. would be damaged “10 times over.”

His decision to lead the prayers was seen as a "symbolically significant act," one usually reserved for an important message to the people, a Middle East scholar told The Washington Post.

Fox News' Adam Shaw, Louis Casiano, Greg Norman, and the Associated Press contributed to this report.

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2020-01-17 14:02:57Z
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In China, GDP Growth Falls To Lowest Level In Nearly 30 Years - NPR

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A crane lifts a CMA CGM Group shipping container from China onto the Hapag-Lloyd Terminal at the Port of Savannah in Savannah, Ga. China's economy grew by just 6.1% last year, a sign that the trade war with the U.S. has taken a toll. Stephen B. Morton/AP hide caption

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Stephen B. Morton/AP

The world's second-largest economy cooled to its slowest pace in nearly three decades in 2019, with China posting year-on-year growth of 6.1% — a further sign that the protracted trade war with the U.S. has taken a toll.

The National Bureau of Statistics of China released the new data on Friday, the same day that it said the country's birth rate had also fallen — to its lowest level since the founding of the People's Republic of China.

The pace of growth in gross domestic product for 2019 was down from 6.6% the previous year and marked the smallest annual increase since 1990.

Beijing's policymakers had projected growth of between 6% and 6.5% for the year.

China's GDP, worth an estimated $14.4 trillion, is second in size only to the U.S. Its economy has been undergoing a painful shift away from heavy industry and commodities. Instead, Beijing has aimed for a more consumer-based economy.

The latest GDP figures, while exceptionally strong by the standards of many other countries, are a long way from the heady days of 10% or more growth barely a decade ago.

In 2007, the Chinese economy grew by a blistering 14%.

In recent years, China's leaders have struggled to balance competing demands of maintaining high rates of growth while simultaneously minimizing the consequences of years of debt-fueled stimulus spending. Last year, authorities took steps to limit wasteful infrastructure investments in an effort to rein in unsustainable levels of local government and corporate debt.

Friday's data come days after a "Phase 1" trade deal between the U.S. and China, seen as a step toward ending an 18-month-old trade dispute, which has seen damaging tariffs imposed by both sides.

The new trade deal eases U.S. tariffs on some popular consumer goods manufactured in China, such as cell phones, but leaves in place hundreds of billions of dollars of other tariffs, including on components that U.S. factories use to assemble finished products.

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A woman carries a baby born on China's National Day at a hospital on Oct. 1, 2019 in Chengdu, Sichuan Province of China. VCG/Visual China Group via Getty Ima hide caption

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VCG/Visual China Group via Getty Ima

Two-child policy fails to take hold

Meanwhile, new birth-rate figures show that Beijing has so far failed to reverse the effects of its longtime one-child policy — a change that policymakers say is necessary to forestall the long-term economic consequences of an aging and shrinking population.

In 2019, there were 10.48 births per 1,000 people, the lowest birth rate since 1949, the year the PRC was founded. The number was down from 10.94 in 2018.

The one-child policy was put in place in 1979 by Chinese leader Deng Xiaoping, who feared that the country's exploding population would hold back economic development.

However, by 2016, China's leadership came to realize that the policy had been too successful and officially relaxed it.

Experts say that improved education and higher incomes in China have led to delayed marriage and childbirth, and that once-strict government restrictions on births have made one-child households the norm.

"China should have stopped the policy 28 years ago. Now it's too late," Yi Fuxian, a senior scientist at the University of Wisconsin in Madison and a longtime critic of the country's family planning policies, told The Guardian last year.

By 2050, a third of China's people will be 60 years of age or older, according to current projections, placing a significant burden on the government to care for the elderly.

NPR's Emily Feng in Beijing contributed to this report.

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2020-01-17 12:17:00Z
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Iran's Khamenei defends Revolutionary Guard in Friday sermon - Al Jazeera English

In his first Friday sermon delivery since 2012, Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has defended the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) amid a growing backlash after it mistakenly shot down a Ukrainian passenger plane, killing all 176 people on board.

Khamenei's address comes as Iran and its rulers face intense pressure at home and abroad after the United States assassinated General Qassem Soleimani, former leader of the elite Quds Force, and the eruption of public anger at Iran's military after its accidental downing of the commercial airliner soon after it took off from Tehran on January 8.

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He described the crash as a "bitter tragedy" and also claimed that "Iran's enemies" used the crash and the military's admission to "weaken" the Revolutionary Guard. 

"The plane crash was a bitter accident, it burned through our heart," Khamenei said.

"But some tried to ... portray it in a way to forget the great martyrdom and sacrifice" of Soleimani, he added, referring to the slain head of the IRGC's foreign operations arm.

"Our enemies were as happy about the plane crash as we were sad ... happy that they found something to question the Guard, the armed forces, the system."

Thousands of worshippers gathered inside a large prayer hall in central Tehran to listen to Khamenei's address. They packed the area and streets outside the building, chanting: "Death to America."

After denying a role in the plane crash, the Revolutionary Guards, an elite military force answering directly to Khamenei that acts as guardian of the Islamic Republic, admitted on January 11 that one of its air defence operators mistakenly shot down Ukraine Airlines International flight 752.

Iranian authorities said earlier this week that a number of people had been arrested over the Ukrainian airliner incident.

But the downing of the plane and belated admission triggered large protests in Tehran and other cities, with the authorities responding by deploying riot police outside universities, where many students had protested.

Video footage posted online showed protesters were beaten and also recorded gunshots, tear gas and blood on the streets. Iran's police denied firing at protesters and said officers had been ordered to show restraint.

'Hand of God'

In his sermon, Khamenei also showed support for Iran's missile strikes on US targets in Iraq in retaliation for the killing of Soleimeni, saying they showed Iran had divine support in delivering a "slap on the face" to a world power.

"The fact that Iran has the power to give such a slap to a world power shows the hand of God," said Khamenei, adding that the US killing of Soleimani showed Washington's "terrorist nature".

The US said on Thursday that 11 of its troops were treated for concussion after the missile attacks, after initially saying that none of its forces was wounded.

US President Donald Trump, who pulled Washington out of a nuclear deal with Iran in 2018 and ratcheted up tensions by reimposing sanctions, had ordered the January 3 drone strike that killed Soleimani, who built up proxy militias across the region.

Praising Soleimani, Khamenei said his actions beyond Iran's borders were in the service of the "security" of the nation and that the people are in favour of "firmness" and "resistance" in the face of enemies.

"The few hundred who insulted the picture of General Soleimani, are they the people of Iran? Or this million-strong crowd in the streets?" he said in an apparent reference to the reported tearing down of a portrait of the dead commander by protesters in Tehran a few days after hundreds of thousands turned out for his funeral.

Khamenei accused the US of "lying" in its expressions of support for the Iranian people.

He said that even if they were with the people, "it is to stab them with their poison dagger".

Khamenei also said on Friday that three European states party to the 2015 nuclear pact "cannot be trusted", after the United Kingdom, France and Germany triggered a formal dispute mechanism in the agreement, which could lead to UN sanctions being reimposed.

SOURCE: Al Jazeera and news agencies

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2020-01-17 11:45:00Z
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Iran’s supreme leader calls Trump a clown, praises missile attack in rare appearance - Fox News

Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Iran’s supreme leader, addressed Friday prayers in Tehran for the first time since 2012 and used the platform to praise the country's retaliatory strike against the U.S. over the killing of one of its top generals and called President Trump a clown who cannot be trusted.

His decision to lead the prayers was seen as a "symbolically significant act," one usually reserved for an important message to the people, a Middle East scholar told the Washington Post.

Khamenei's message appeared to show little interest in forging a relationship with the U.S. He blamed Washington for its "cowardly" decision to take out the country's most effective commander in the fight against ISIS.

Trump, who ordered the Jan. 8 airstrike in Baghdad, called Gen. Qassem Soleimani one of the "worst terrorists in history and the father of the roadside bomb," who had the blood of U.S. servicemembers on his hands.

Iran, in response, launched a barrage of ballistic missiles targeting U.S. troops in Iraq, without causing serious injuries. It was just revealed that 11 U.S. service members were flown out of Al Assad Air Base in Iraq-- one of the bases targeted-- and treated for concussion symptoms.

“The fact that Iran has the power to give such a slap to a world power shows the hand of God,” Khamenei said, according to Reuters.

As Iran's Revolutionary Guard braced for an American counterattack that never came, it mistakenly shot down a Ukrainian jetliner shortly after it took off from Tehran's international airport, killing all 176 passengers on board, mostly Iranians.

Khamenei called the shootdown of the plane a "bitter accident" that saddened Iran as much as it made its enemies happy.

Authorities in Tehran concealed their role in the tragedy for three days, initially blaming the crash on a technical problem. Their admission of responsibility triggered days of street protests, which security forces dispersed with live ammunition and tear gas.

Protesters in the country took to the streets calling for Khamenei to step down. Twitter users posted videos of protesters holding photos of the leader chanting, “Commander-in-chief (Khamenei) resign, resign,” according to Reuters.

Trump praised the protesters and pointed out one video that showed them refusing to step on Israeli and American flags.

Khamenei told the crowd Friday that Trump is not to be trusted and only pretends to support the Iranian people. He said Western countries are too weak to "bring Iranians to their knees." He said Iran was willing to negotiate, but not with the U.S.

As Tehran grappled with the fallout from protests stemming from a cover-up of its accidental downing of a Ukrainian airliner, TV anchor Gelare Jabbari addressed her viewers on an Instagram post that appears to have been deleted.

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“It was very hard for me to believe that our people have been killed," the post read, according to The Guardian. "Forgive me that I got to know this late. And forgive me for the 13 years I told you lies.”

Fox News' Adam Shaw, Louis Casiano and the Associated Press contributed to this report

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2020-01-17 09:46:20Z
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Iran's supreme leader hails missile strikes against US troops in Iraq as a 'day of God' - CNBC

Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamanei makes a speech regarding Trump's withdrawal decision from Iran nuclear deal during a press conference in Tehran, Iran on May 09, 2018.

Iranian Leader's Press Office | Handout | Anadolu Agency | Getty Images

Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said Friday that Tehran's decision to attack military bases housing U.S. troops in Iraq earlier this month was a "day of God."

The 80-year-old said the U.S. showed its terrorist nature in killing the former Quds Force commander Qasem Soleimani, according to a Reuters translation, before adding the "assassination" was a disgrace to President Donald Trump's administration.

His comments came as he led Friday prayers for the first time in eight years.

The Islamic Republic is currently grappling with elevated tensions since the death of Soleimani and widespread protests following the accidental downing of a passenger jet that killed all 176 people on board — the majority of whom were Iranian citizens.

Many of those taking part in the rallies have called for the country's top leaders to resign.

Iran's government admitted to the accidental downing of the Ukrainian International Airlines passenger jet on Jan. 11, after days of denying a role in the crash.

Delivering the weekly sermon for the first time since 2012, Khamenei also said Iran would not yield to U.S. sanctions imposed over a dispute on its nuclear program.

Elevated tensions

Iran's Soleimani was killed in a U.S. drone strike on Jan. 3. It marked the most dramatic escalation between Washington and Tehran in a series of tit-for-tat attacks. Western forces and embassies in the region have been on high alert since then.

The attack prompted Iran to retaliate by launching more than a dozen ballistic missiles at the Ain al-Asad airbase in Iraq's western Anbar province and a base in Irbil in the country's north.

No U.S. service members were killed in the attack but several were treated for concussions, the Pentagon said in a statement earlier this week.

In a televised address after Iran fired missiles at the airbases in Iraq, Trump said Tehran appeared to be "standing down" following an initial spike in tensions.

The Trump administration has claimed its decision to kill Soleimani was taken in part because he was "actively developing plans to attack American diplomats and service members in Iraq and throughout the region."

Iran's Khamenei also claimed on Friday that the U.S. was trying to divide Iraq and trigger a civil war.

Earlier in the week, Iranian President Hassan Rouhani lashed out at the U.S. and Europe, criticizing their military presence in the Middle East during an angry speech on state television.

Rouhani said U.S. troops were currently "insecure" in the region, according to a Reuters translation, before adding EU troops might also be in danger. It was the first time he had directed a threat toward European forces in the Middle East.

— CNBC's Natasha Turak contributed to this report.

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2020-01-17 09:05:00Z
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US troops were injured in Iran missile attack despite Pentagon initially saying there were no casualties - CNN

"While no U.S. service members were killed in the Jan. 8 Iranian attack on Al Asad Air base, several were treated for concussion symptoms from the blast and are still being assessed," the US-led military coalition fighting ISIS in Iraq and Syria said in a statement Thursday.

"Out of an abundance of caution, service members were transported from Al Asad Air Base, Iraq to Landstuhl Regional Medical Center in Germany for follow-on screening. When deemed fit for duty, the service members are expected to return to Iraq following screening," the statement added.

A US military official told CNN that 11 service members had been injured in the attack, which was launched in retaliation for the US airstrikes that had killed Iranian Gen. Qasem Soleimani the previous week. Defense One was first to report on the injured service members.

Following the attack the Pentagon said that no casualties had resulted from the 16 missiles fired by Iran. The US military defines a casualty as either an injury or fatality involving personnel.

Asked about the apparent discrepancy, a Defense official told CNN, "That was the commander's assessment at the time. Symptoms emerged days after the fact, and they were treated out of an abundance of caution."

After this story published, Capt. Bill Urban -- the spokesperson for US Central Command, which oversees troops in the Middle East -- said the military had learned after the attack that 11 individuals were injured -- eight were transported to Landstuhl Regional Medical Center in Germany and three were sent to Camp Arifjan in Kuwait for "follow-on screening."

"As a standard procedure, all personnel in the vicinity of a blast are screened for traumatic brain injury, and if deemed appropriate are transported to a higher level of care," Urban said in a statement. "All soldiers in the immediate blast area were screened and assessed per standard procedure, according to the Defense Department. ... When deemed fit for duty, the service members are expected to return to Iraq following screening."

Last week, Secretary of Defense Mark Esper had said the initial assessment found only damage to property.

"The current (Battle Damage Assessment) is, if you will, again, we can get you details, things like tentage, taxiways, the parking lot, a damaged helicopter, things like that; nothing that I would describe as major, at least as I note at this point in time. So that's the state of -- of the attack at this point as we know it. Most importantly, no casualties, no friendly casualties, whether they are US, coalition, contractor, etc.," Esper said.

The news of the injuries come after Iran fired at two Iraqi bases housing US troops in retaliation for Soleimani's killing in the Iraqi capital of Baghdad. The administration sought to cast its strike on Soleimani as an attempt to de-escalate tensions with Iran, but Tehran has described it as an "act of war" and "state terrorism." Soleimani had been the second most powerful official in the country.

US officials have offered differing accounts of what they see as the motivations behind Iran's attack. Vice President Mike Pence said last week that the administration believes the strikes "were intended to kill Americans," and Army Gen. Mark Milley, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said he believed that the attacks "were intended to cause structural damage, destroy vehicles and equipment and aircraft, and to kill personnel."

But a growing belief emerged among administration officials last week that Iran had deliberately missed areas populated by Americans. Multiple administration officials told CNN that Iran could have directed its missiles to areas populated by Americans, but intentionally did not. And those officials said Iran may have chosen to send a message rather than take action significant enough to provoke a substantial US military response, a possible signal the Trump administration was looking for a rationale to calm the tensions.

Iraq did receive a warning that the strike was coming and was able to take "necessary precautions," according to a statement from Iraq's Prime Minister Adil Abdul Mahdi. A US defense official said that Iraq, in turn, warned the United States.

However, Pentagon officials have said they received no such warnings from the Iraqis but that the US was able to detect the attack in enough time to alert US forces on the ground.

Iran's UN ambassador said last Friday that the Iraqi bases housing US troops had been primarily selected to demonstrate target accuracy, not to kill Americans, disputing public claims made by top Trump administration officials.

"We said before we took our military action that we would choose the timing and the place, and we chose the place where the attack against Soleimani was initiated," Ambassador Majid Takht Ravanchi told CNN's John Berman on "New Day" last Friday when asked about Pence's comments. "And we do not consider a high number of casualties as an instrumental element in our calculations."

UPDATE: This story has been updated with additional information on the attack and a statement from US Central Command.

CNN's Caroline Kelly, Kylie Atwood, Pamela Brown, Kaitlan Collins, Jim Sciutto, Ryan Browne, Barbara Starr and Paul LeBlanc contributed to this report.

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https://news.google.com/__i/rss/rd/articles/CBMiVmh0dHBzOi8vd3d3LmNubi5jb20vMjAyMC8wMS8xNi9wb2xpdGljcy9zZXJ2aWNlLW1lbWJlcnMtaW5qdXJlZC1pcmFuLXN0cmlrZS9pbmRleC5odG1s0gFaaHR0cHM6Ly9hbXAuY25uLmNvbS9jbm4vMjAyMC8wMS8xNi9wb2xpdGljcy9zZXJ2aWNlLW1lbWJlcnMtaW5qdXJlZC1pcmFuLXN0cmlrZS9pbmRleC5odG1s?oc=5

2020-01-17 04:40:00Z
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